Romero Britto’s South Beach gallery sells for $34.5M

The South Beach home of Brazilian artist Romero Britto’s gallery traded for $34.5 million, The Real Deal has learned.

Miami-based 818 Lincoln Corp. sold the 8,375-square-foot building on Wednesday, according to Miami-Dade County records. Alan Levine signed the deed as vice president of 818 Lincoln. The property last sold for $335,000 in 1993.

A Montreal-based company called 818 Lincoln Investments is the buyer. It received a $24.5 million mortgage from the seller as part of the transaction. Danny Lavy is identified as the manager of the buying company.

Lavy is the CEO of household products distributor Elite Group Inc.

The 818 Lincoln Road building was originally constructed in 1935. Britto operates his Britto Central gallery and showroom at the property.

I’m afraid selling the building that houses Romero Britto’s gallery will not make him go away, if they give it the boot, he will find another location. The only thing that could make him go away would be that the people stop buying his art, and that isn’t going to stop anytime soon. He is enormously popular with the public. We may be too sophisticated to appreciate his “accessible art”, but the peeps know what they like and are willing to pay. Now, if only we could get local governments, civic organizations and developers to stop buying his large colorful and cheesy sculptural pieces that dot the Miami landscape that would be a real achievement.